Month: July 1998

NEW YORK––Humane childrearing advocate Benjamin Spock, M.D., left some of his most important advice for last:

“We now know that there are harmful effects of a meaty diet,” he stated in the seventh and last edition of Baby And Child Care produced under his direct supervision. “Children can get plenty of protein and iron from vegetables, beans, and other plant foods that avoid the fat and cholesterol that are in animal products.” Spock also rejected milk. Read more

Don Davis, 68, died June 5 in
Colorado Springs. Born in Columbus, Ohio,
Davis was son of the Columbus Zoo director
(his father) and gorilla keeper (his mother.)
Accepted for membership by the American
Zoo Association at age 17, Davis became
director of the Mesker Park Zoo in Evansville,
Indiana, in 1955, and after establishing his
credentials, became associate director of the
Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado Springs
two years later, stepping up to director in
1962. During his tenure, which ended in
1981, he “expanded the zoo’s facilities, started
its now-famous giraffe collection, and
pushed its primate and hoofed animal collections
to world fame,” Denver Zoo executive
director Clayton Freiheit told Ovette Sampson
of the Colorado Springs Gazette-Telegraph.

Frank Awbrey, 65, died on May
31 of liver cancer. Remembered longtime colleague
Ann E. Bowles, senior staff biologist
at the Hubbs-Sea World Research Institute in
San Diego, “His career in bioacoustics
spanned 42 years,” beginning with studies of
frog sounds at Texas A&M University.
Relocating to San Diego State University in
1964, and later spending 21 years with the
Hubbs-Sea World Research Institute, Awbrey
studied “acoustical measurements of sonic
booms and seal-control devices, bioacoustics
of Antarctic killer whales and leopard seals,
auditory threshholds of beluga whales, and
acoustic techniques to reduce fishery impact
on marine mammals,” Bowles remembered.
Awbrey in 1990 founded the Environmental
Trust, Bowles said, “to protect what remains
of undeveloped native habitat in the San Diego
area.” His final project, she noted, was “a
groundbreaking effort to measure the longterm
population level effects of aircraft noise on
endangered passerines (songbirds).”

Covering a span of about five
years, Red Tails In Love explores the lives
of two communities within Central Park.
The hawks as part of the greater wildlife
community are avidly monitored by another
community, the birdwatching Regulars.
Written as a play, in acts and scenes, the
book weaves their stories.

Horse, Follow Closely: Native
American Horsemanship is sure to become a
best-seller among horse owners––novice horse
owners, that is. It is primarily a photographic
showcase for the author, GaWaNi Pony Boy,
with his horses replete in Native American
dress and paint. Seasoned equestrians, critical
readers and maybe even a few historians will
be concerned by the lack of sound content.

LITTLE ROCK––David Westbrook,
49, director of the Little Rock Zoo since
1984, and a staff member since 1977,
resigned on May 15 after a week on paid
leave, “possibly avoiding a suspension or dismissal,”
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reporter
Jake Sandlin speculated.
Westbrook was to remain on the
payroll through June 30. Westbrook was previously
suspended at least twice for failing to
promptly remedy problems at the zoo.
Westbrook’s wife Kelli, a zoo nursery keeper,
reportedly also missed some work time during
Westbrook’s week on leave, but was retained.
Interim zoo director Carroll Hargrove confirmed
almost a month later that the zoo was
being investigated by the USDA for operating
without a federal exhibitor’s license. The zoo
was eventually given until July 20 to pass
USDA inspection.

BRUSSELS––Fourteen of the 15
environment ministers representing European
Union member nations on June 17 approved a
draft directive advanced by Great Britain
which sets a framework for certifying and
licensing the European Union’s estimated
1,000 zoos, animal parks, and menageries.
“The (proposed) law is also backed
by leaders of the European Parliament,”
reported Charles Bremner of the London
Times, “which voted overwhelmingly this
year for binding measures to insure the wellbeing
of captive wild animals.”
But the plan is reportedly strongly
opposed by European Commission president
Jacques Senter, as an example of allegedly
unnecessary intervention in national sovereignty.
Taking the same position, Germany
abstained from the vote by the council of environment
ministers. The EC killed a previous
British effort to set EU zoo standards in 1991.

Animal Rights International/Coalition for NonViolent
Food founder Henry Spira offers his Coordinator’s
Report ‘98 free for the asking. Featured articles: Activists
shift focus to factory farming, McDonald’s initiates farm ani –
mal humane program, USDA issues farm animal well-being
report, ARI comments to the USDA, and Campaigns and how
you can help the farm animals. Write to POB 214,
Planetarium Station, New York, NY 10024.
Hot Dinner, a new 50-second Vegetarian Society
ad shown in 250 British cinemas starting in mid-June, “begins
with a melon being stroked,” according to Ruaridh Nicoll of
The Guardian. “A woman’s fingers then roll dough, a pea is
gently tickled in its pod, hot chillis sizzle, a saucepan lets off
steam before rice shoots across a pink plate, a peach is covered
in creme fraiche, and asparagus drips oil.” Said Vegetarian
Society spokesperson Chris Dessent, “It’s definitely a bit
rude, but we want to show that vegetarians are sexy.”

Convicted Animal Liberation Front arsonist
Douglas Joshua Ellerman, 19, remains at large after failing
to appear for sentencing in Salt Lake City on May 6, but a
sweep by five agencies seeking Ellerman on June 18 and 19
nabbed four Salt Lake City men who were charged on June 23
with releasing mink from the Beckstead Mink Farm in West
Jordan, Utah, on June 22, 1996 and July 17, 1996. The
actions allegedly did more than $200,000 in property damage.
The accused include Jacob Lyman Kenison, 19, and
Brandon James Mitchener, Alexander David Slack, a n d
Sean Albert Gautsch, all 22. Also charged was a fugitive
John Doe, believed to be Ellerman.
The Natrona County Sheriff’s Department, in
Casper, Colorado, said on June 21 that persons claiming to
be “Islamic Jihad Ecoterrorists” had done $100,000 in damage
to local ranchers during the preceding week by cutting fences
dividing federal, private, and state lands in Natrona,
Fremont, and Carbon counties in more than 150 locations.

Finishing last in a race at Poole,
England, for the second time in four starts, a
greyhound named Wilma on June 2 may have
sensed the usual fate of dogs who lose, and
instead of stopping when the other dogs did,
bolted the track, still in her colors and muzzle.
She remained at large for five days,
while owner Kate Sheppard and trainer J o
Burridge insisted she would not be harmed.
Pressured by the National Canine Defense
League, Royal SPCA, Blue Cross, and
Battersea Dogs Home, the National
Greyhound Association announced within
days that it would make constitutional amendments
to clarify rules for the humane disposition
of retired racing greyhounds.

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